Iraq forces advance in Mosul but civilian toll mounts

Iraqi forces fought their way into more districts of Mosul but advances in the city's
southeast were being slowed by Islamic State's use of civilians for
cover, military officials said on Tuesday.

The
United Nations said civilian casualties had streamed into nearby
hospitals in the last two weeks as fighting intensified in the jihadist
group's last major stronghold in Iraq.

Advances
by elite forces in the city's east and northeast have picked up speed
in a new push since the turn of the year, and U.S.-backed forces have
for the first time reached the Tigris river, which bisects the city.

Seizing
control of Hadba, a large district, would likely take more than a day,
and Islamic State (IS) were deploying suicide bombers, he added.

Recapturing
Mosul after more than two years of Islamic State rule would probably
spell the end of the Iraqi side of the group's self-declared caliphate,
which spans areas of Iraq and Syria.
Forces
in the city's eastern and northeastern districts, and in particular the
elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), have made rapid gains in past
days.

Better defenses against militant car bombs and improved coordination among the advancing troops had helped
put Islamic State on the back foot, U.S. and Iraqi military officers
said.

"Every day the Iraqi
Security Forces go forward and every day the enemy goes backward or
underground," U.S. Air Force Colonel John Dorrian, spokesman for the
coalition, told reporters in Erbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

MILITANTS 'HIDING IN MOSQUES'

But fighting in neighbourhoods in the southeast has been tougher.

"The
challenge is that they (IS) are hiding among civilian families, that's
why our advances are slow and very cautious," Lieutenant-Colonel Abdel
Amir al-Mohammedawi, a spokesman for the rapid response units of Iraq's
federal police, told Reuters.

Mohammedawi
said rapid response units and Iraqi army units had fought their way
into the Palestine and Sumer districts in the last day, but that Islamic
State fighters were firing at civilians trying to flee.

"The
families, when they see Iraqi forces coming, flee from the areas
controlled by Daesh (Islamic State) towards the Iraqi forces, holding up
white flags, and Daesh bomb them with mortars and Molotov cocktails,
and also shoot at them.

"Whenever they (IS) withdraw from a district, they shell it at random, and it's heavy shelling," he said.

Col. Dorrian said militant fighters were hiding in mosques, schools and hospitals, using civilians as human shields.
The
United Nations' humanitarian coordination office (OCHA) said nearly 700
people had been taken to hospitals in cities in Kurdish-controlled
areas outside Mosul in the last week, and more than 817 had required
hospital treatment a week earlier.

"Trauma casualties remain extremely high, particularly near frontline areas," OCHA said.
The
U.S.-backed operation to drive the ultra-hardline militants from Mosul
began in October and has recaptured villages and towns surrounding the
city, and most of Mosul's eastern half.

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